


.Darker Than the Starless Night

by Sanguis



Series: The Gods Below [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1520810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanguis/pseuds/Sanguis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The townspeople are afraid of the Horned Boys who take water from the fish-speakers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	.Darker Than the Starless Night

**Author's Note:**

> The third installment of The Gods Below. Characters from other installments are mentioned, but you don't have to read them to understand this.

**Hover for translations**

His heart was darker than the starless night

For that there is a morn

But in this black Receptacle

Can be no Bode of Dawn – Emily Dickinson

 

349 years after Bartram’s apotheosis.

* * *

 

They grow horns on their fifth birthday. They curl around their ears, settle in their red hair. [E Ressiye Paerlum](http://-/) had granted them their wish, so Florent picks the flowers in the field outside of town and patiently weaves them into his and Faust’s hairs. It takes some time; Faust always attracts blackbirds, and now they have the horns to perch on. They leave feathers too, so Faust  pins them behind their ears; they pretend to have crowns.

 

The blackbirds had taught them the prayers to [E Triaedü Ssagaeze](http://-/), to lay flowers on the roots of trees and watch them bleed into the ground. They tell of a great tree among the downs of shadow, [E Brazju Sovn-Alssmae](http://-/), and the brothers promise they will go one day. At night Faust whispers that he can see that tree; its own shadow is long and the flowers under it are bright red.

Together, they wander the streets with their blackbirds and flowers. If they walk to the forest, the Pyodae Yelüna will give them fish and water. The townspeople don’t, because they’re afraid of the Horned Boys who take water from the fish-speakers. [ _Nem nuzj seit nien kizj_](http://-/), the blackbirds say. It’s a strange tongue, Sombrae - Florent thinks it ought sound like a song, except blackbirds, ravens and crows can’t sing. The brothers learn the language quickly, and the townspeople start to think they’re hardly human at all. Perhaps they’re changelings; their witch-mother had had blue hair when she birthed them. She had disappeared into shadows soon after.

[ _Drokke_](http://-/), the [Pyodae Yelüna](http://-/) tell the boys when they ask of her,  _fish-mother, dragon-sister_. Not some silly witch-girl who had abandoned her children, but a drokke who had lost her way to the water.

At the age of six, they meet [E Adüe Silü](http://melancholicpandemonium.tumblr.com/post/79857569796/were-fishing-up-our-dead-hope) and his drokke. Qamar’s skin is as dark as Florent’s, [E Adüe Yelü](http://-/)'s as fair as Faust's. Qamar takes them on his lap and tells them of their mother, his [raessae drokke](http://-/); she has hair as blue as the turqoise sky, eyes as black as the night, lips the colour of E Maedü’s orange flowers and the scales that cover her neck glitter with all the colours of the rainbow. They learn that her name is Qiturah, and that her sister is Qamra.

E Adüe Silü has no voice, the brothers learn quickly. He has no tongue, and his mouth bleeds. He uses his hands to convey meaning; together with his children and his drokke, he passes this knowledge to Faust and Florent.

Often, when his mouth bleeds, he will say to a concerned Qamar, _I’ll feel better if you kiss me._ Qamar smiles and leans over the boys to give his companion a heartfelt kiss.

On their seventh birthday, the silent Adüe Yelü takes them to meet Sombrae Haetrena, the people who live in shadows, speak of shadows and whisper to the dead. Faust thinks they are lovely, so fae-like and happy. Florent likes the shrine they have for E Triaedü Ssagaeze; it’s covered in flowers and wine, in bones and blood. E Adüe Yelü plays the violin for them, and it is here that Faust and Florent learn to sing; they don’t have to pay him with their dreams, because he says he loves them. He teaches them this:  _never tell[E Skurtaem Raesseana ](http://-/)your name, they are hungry creatures_.

They ask him what his name is, but he shakes his head. Qamar knows, but he says it's something lost to sound, something they keep to themselves. With a sharp, bitter flair to the movements of his hands, E Adüe Silü says, “Your [pressayena](http://-/) took it from me.”

They linger with the [Sombrae Haetrena](http://-/) for a week. The necromancers have built their houses in the shadows of the trees, they wind from the ground up to the branches. They carve the names of their [Dyurena](http://gods/) into their doors and paint them with black feathers; that way [E Ressiye](http://-/) knows to protect them from the spirits of the night, [E Dyure](http://-/) knows which dead to kiss, and [E Maedü](http://-/)knows which children to bless. At night, the light is lilac.

Sombrae Haetrena only sing at night, when the stars and the moon do not hide from the light of the sun. The boys learn that it’s the best time for songs, for the wind to carry their voices to E Dyurena. The Pyodae Yelüna rise from their ponds and visit on full moon nights; they have no fishtail when they walk the earth, but the scales on their arms, chests and necks glitter with all sorts of colours. Their scales don’t hide shadows, and Florent thinks that’s funny because Qamar’s do, and they grow longer when he speaks the tongue of his father.

The Pyodae Yelüna sit at E Adüe Silü’s feet and hum their own song; it sounds less of death than what the Sombrae Haetrena sing, but it’s melancholy nonetheless. They can’t ask to learn it; there’s a limit to the songs they’re allowed to know before they are asked to pay in dreams. Faust and Florent aren’t willing to give up their dreams - they only have one to pay with.

Reluctant as they are to return to their town, they’re still happy to see its dusty streets. Their makeshift altar in a back alley of Sea-street is, however, destroyed, and the flowers that they had left behind have wilted. A pile of salt rests around it, but it burns their fingers when they try to clean it. Faust’s tears make it worse, and the blackbirds don’t visit for a week until the stench of salt has dissipated.

Standing in the plaza, with Florent perched on the fountain; he sings the songs of E Sombrae Haetrena. For each person there is a line, a couplet, a song. As they enter the sleep of death, the blackbirds flutter their wings and take their souls, and later, Florent takes them to their altar and whispers in the tongue of shadows;  _[benye wrae f’E privyana, benye sovn nürye basste](http://-/)._

The Skurtaem Raessena come later; their flower crowns leave pink petals behind. Fingers black and spidery, they delicately lay a feather for each soul lost, and then they take the boys to the forest, to the pond where E Adüe Silü and his drokke wait. A blue-haired lady sleeps at their feet.

"She's returned for you," Qamar says.

She is a wonder to behold, and the twins’ eyes are wide as they regard her.

Their mother, Qiturah wakes slowly. They sit at her side and wait; Florent weaves burnt flowers and black feathers in her hair, Faust sings softly, sweetly. The Skurtaem Raessena convene in the shadows of the trees, they mutter and mutter, but the boys can't hear her. Qamar looks concerned.

Qiturah wakes disoriented, but she sees the boys first, smiles.

“[Benan f’atyu baevü](http://-/),” she says softly. She pulls them closer, to the warmth of her breast and her belly. Under her trembling skin, Faust feels her weary bones, and Florent hears her faintly beating heart. E Skurtaem Raessaena stop with their whispers and regard them as they sleep in their mother’s arms.

"They must go." They say eventually. "They belong to E Dyure, now."

Qiturah and E Adüe Silü both emit a distressed noise. Qiturah hugs her boys closer, kisses their red hair. “[Benan nuzjat povem tomsse nem viye’me](http://-/)![Nuzjat miye yelurtena](http://-/)!” She turns to Qamar, he eyes plead, “[Ressiye](http://-/)…”

Qamar argues with E Raessaena; E Adüe Silü's hands tremble too much, but his Pyodae Yelüna sing their songs to drown out the angry voices. Qiturah falls into a tense sleep, still exhausted from her journeys.

When Qamar can no longer argue with his pressayena, they take the boys with them. They walk many fields, until they come to meadows filled with black earth and orange-red-pink flowers. The Raessaena carry the boys on their backs, Florent whispers "The meadows are set aflame."

They arrive at an arbour on the third day, and beyond that they see the tree, and The Black Palace. That’s when the humming starts too; the raessaena have their own songs, but the boys don’t want to know them. “You’ll see your dream now.” The Raessaena say in their sing-song voices. Their hairs smell sweet too, like cinnamon.

A man sits up in the branches E Brazju Sovn-Alssmae, his hair is black, his skin like ivory, and his eyes brown like earth. His smile is dreamy, as if he were seeing things that are not quite there, but were lovely to look at nonetheless. In the distance, Faust sees two men walk hand in hand – E Dyure Paerlum and his Consort.

"You can’t stay in the world of the living, [miye tayelüna](My%20granchildren)," E Ressiye says. He jumps from the tree. "E Maedü weeps for her Horned Children."

He beckons them to sit with him beneath the tree; they both try to crawl into his lap, with some success. E Ressiye caresses their hair and traces their horns gently; he plucks three feathers each from their curls. If they listen closely, they can hear his heartbeat.

"You'll be the Dead Mother's Horned Children," Qadim tells them. "E Maedü asks you to care for her tree."

They can almost see her; she sleeps within the bark, curled up like a seedling, her skin as grey as her son's. Faust wants to know what colour her eyes will be, if it's the colour of her flowers or if they are as green as the leaves.

Florent asks, "What of our own mother?"

"My daughter knows the path to the arbour," Qadim says. "She will find you."

After they lay flowers for E Maedü, she talks to them and teaches them how to properly tend to her tree. Her eyes are hazel, nearly the same shade as her orange flowers. She only wakes from her slumber once a day, walks her fields in her white dress and dances with E Raessaena. When Qiturah visits, they braid their hairs together and watch their boys pick the flowers.

Qiturah builds them a cottage in the mountain and kisses them to sleep at night, when the stars are as black as the sky.


End file.
